Meet Nikita Singh: principal consultant in international development making waves from Jakarta, Indonesia

Our collaborative culture helps us to combine technical excellence and strategic advice, adding value for clients at every stage, from ideation and delivery to operations and maintenance. We caught up with principal consultant Nikita Singh to talk about her role as the country manager for the Green Cities and Infrastructure Programme (GCIP) in Indonesia and her career journey to date.

Tell us about your role at Mott MacDonald

I am a principal consultant in the management consulting team within our international development services business.

Currently, I am on a long-term assignment to Jakarta, Indonesia as the Green Cities and Infrastructure Programme (GCIP) country manager.

This is an incredibly exciting and dynamic role working with the team in Indonesia to deliver the ambitious portfolio of activities across GCIP. I am working with the team to set a transformative ambition and strategy and understand upcoming opportunities, make the path to delivery as smooth as possible and ensure we are accurately capturing the outcome and impact of our work.

Why did you choose your career path? Why Mott MacDonald?

I started my career in law, policy and strategy, primarily in the defence sector. When I pivoted to the development sector, there was a steep learning curve to understand the sector’s drivers, considerations and challenges.

Reflecting on my time at Mott MacDonald, the 70:20:10 per cent rule applies in characterising my career development and specialism. For example, about 10% of my learning came from formal courses, including a course on political economy analysis applications and gender-lens investment. About 20% of my learning came from colleagues who were able to help me understand the country context and specialist knowledge critical to delivery. Notably, the majority of my upskilling, around 70%, was through hands-on experience afforded to me through my in-country placement, where I was fully embedded in the management of complex development programmes and at the forefront of stakeholder engagement and delivery.

Can you share a project you’ve worked on that you’re particularly proud of and explain why it stands out to you?

Since joining Mott MacDonald in May 2023, I have predominantly been involved in GCIP and have been lucky to be part of the programme since it commenced in late-2023.

Since joining GCIP, I have taken on various roles under the programme, including in the programme design and strategy at its inception, and I am now at the forefront of delivery of the UK’s long-term partnership in Indonesia. One of the standout opportunities as part of my involvement in GCIP was to be part of the early-stage development of a new UK Expertise methodology to embed gender equality, disability and social inclusion (GEDSI) considerations into project, programme or institutional designs in a way that would unlock sustainable sources of finance.

In supporting this work, I drafted the landscape analysis brief, which laid the foundation for the GEDSI Lens Criteria and Toolkit, providing detailed steps for integrating GEDSI into projects. I was involved in the early stages of developing the associated GEDSI criteria and participated in the global peer review of the criteria by key investors and donors.

In my current role, I am now able to look for opportunities to apply the criteria and toolkit to our work and increase opportunities for finance in the projects we engage on.

What does being part of a global team mean to you and how does it influence your work?

Management consulting as a career is often mocked for being vague; the joke being that even those in the profession are unable to define what they do. While tackling this identity crisis early in my career, a colleague provided me with a valuable insight into their definition and outlook on the profession - that consultants help simplify complex problems and enable effective decision making.

This insight helped me define my own approach with a focus on three pillars: simplicity of communication, understanding stakeholders and structured problem solving.

What advice would you give to someone looking to start their career at Mott MacDonald?

Mott MacDonald is brimming with leading global experts in various domains and I would encourage those early in their career to learn from those around you. Remain open-minded and curious and learn from those around you to try and understand the localised drivers of the contexts in which are delivering and the constant evolution of the sectors we work in.